A baby gift

It's been a while since I posted a real sewing project. It's not because I'm not working on anything, it's because the things I'm working on are more important to me than another "just for fun" dress for myself, and it's taking time to get things right.

But a woman at work is very pregnant with her 3rd, and her baby shower is tomorrow, so I put my big project aside this week to focus on her baby gift:

I sewed on all the embellishments really securely, so baby won't gnaw any of the buttons off. ; I just wanted to add a little bit of extra texture and interest.

The "tags" are attached to the elephant/horse page. Just extra pieces from my stash.

close up of the black satin buttons I used on the barbells.

The acrobat is my favorite page.

I've pressed out the wrinkles throughout the book. ; They weren't as bad as the photo seems.

The kind of hazy look and that white crease happened after I pre-washed it. ; Probably my fabric softener :\
Hopefully she will like it enough to forgive the imperfections (which I think look worse in these pictures than in real life- I'm no photographer). ; I think it's pretty cute despite all that.

This was my first time making a cloth book. ; It was made from a fat quarter from spoonflower.com. ; Start to finish was probably about 6 hours- spread out over 4 evenings.
I put fusible batting on 1 side of each 4 page "sandwich". ; I added the tags to 1 sandwich and ric-rac to 2 sandwiches, then I sewed up 3 sides of each sandwich, flipped it rightside out, folded in the open end. and topstitched it all the way around. ; I put the buttons and other embellishments on after the batting, but before sewing the sandwich together. ; I thought it would be easier, but I think I should have done it last- some of the buttons were tricky to sew around.
It was a trickier project than I expected. ; I am REALLY not good at measuring and cutting to measurement (probably why I like patterns so much), and it's a good thing I bought extra batting because I cut it an inch too short. ; Remeasured, recut, still an inch too short. ; I did this like 3 times :\
I like how it turned out, and deciding on the embellishments was fun. ; I'm really glad that I can give something handmade for the babyshower- those things always seem to be the best. ;
It was a nice little project, and a good quick break from my Halloween costume. ; I think I'd like to do something like this again once the holidays are over.

Having read this I thought it was extremely enlightening. I appreciate you
taking the time and energy to put this article together. I once again find myself
spending way too much time both reading and posting comments.
But so what, it was still worthwhile!